Stuff You Should Know - Selects: Who was America's first murderer?

Episode Date: June 5, 2021

John Billington didn't just sign the Mayflower Compact -- he was also the colony's first criminal, and had the dubious honor of being the first European to be convicted of murder in this new place. But how did it happen? Tune in to this classic episode to find out. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Munga Chauticular and it turns out astrology is way more widespread than any of us want to

believe. You can find in Major League Baseball, International Banks, K-pop groups, even the White House. But just when I thought I had a handle on this subject, something completely unbelievable happened to me and my whole view on astrology changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, give me a few minutes because I think your ideas are about to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, it's Josh here with this week's SYSK Selects. I've chosen Who Was America's First Murderer. It's a classic episode from 2011 and it has history, even more history, and at its heart, it's a true crime story. Plus, it's just straight up interesting.

And we did record this 10 years ago, so if some of the words or language that we use seems a little out of date, please forgive us. The world has changed tremendously in the last decade. I hope you enjoy this one as much as we do because it's a great one. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeart radio. Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and this is Stuff You Should Know, episode 398. No, it's not. Why I'm saying it is. Oh, okay. So now it's episode 398. Episode three, something. Three, niner, eighter. That's good, Josh. Is that your intro? Rockin' in a rollin',

splishin' in a splashin', over the horizon, what could it be? Look like it's gonna be a new country. You remember that one? No, what are you talking about? Like a genuinely of no idea. That was the schoolhouse rock for the Mayflower voyage. Wow, really? Rockin' in a rollin', splishin' in a splashin'. You remember that? Can come in? Oh man. Over the horizon, what could it be? Look like it's going to be a free country. Nice. Or a new country. Either way. It was both new and free. Probably new. Because it was not free for everybody. That's true. Yeah. So you're talking about this because we're going to talk about the first murderer, right? Yeah, and before we start, I want to ask,

why has no one ever made a modern film about the Mayflower voyage? It seems like a no-brainer. You know? Yeah, I don't know. Especially after it's gotten around to it yet. Like the awesomeness of master and commander. Did you ever see that? The one with Russell Crowe? Yeah, it was very good. Surprisingly good. Yeah, it surprised me too, actually. But I didn't get the colon. It made it sound like it was a franchise, but it was like the first of the franchise. It wasn't like, oh, I guess, I guess Pirates of the Caribbean did have a colon. The first one, didn't it? I don't know. But that was Peter Weir, master and commander. So it makes sense that it was awesome

because he's such a great director. And related to Bob Weir, I think. Really? I don't know. I've always suspected. Did he do the Truman Show? That was written by the guy who did Gadica. I don't know who directed that. That might have been Peter Weir. But he did Gallipoli and scores of great movies. Well, cool. Well, thank you for joining us at this discussion of Peter Weir's films. He should direct the Mayflower movie. It was what I'm saying for goodness sakes. Oh, okay. They need to do it like a realistic. Because, you know, when you learn about it in school, at least I did, I thought, you know, you learn about it from Schoolhouse Rock. And you get the picture, they did sang

songs and kind of rock and roll over the ocean and then ran into Plymouth Rock and shared Thanksgiving with the Indians. And they need to make a real movie about how it really was. Well, yeah, because, you know, that whole Schoolhouse Rock impression is pretty widely held even among adults, educated adults. And the reason why is because there's a very small amount of firsthand information that left Plymouth Colony, right? And was allowed to stand. There was a small group of people who were controlling all of the info about that place. And they were trying to paint it in as good a light as possible because they were trying to attract investors. Yeah. And these firsthand accounts that, you know, basically painted the

Puritans as, you know, these hard, scrapple people who were guided by divine hand in the wilderness has stood all these centuries. Hard scrapple. Hard scrapple. So let's talk about, let's talk about the pilgrims, the voyage, right? They landed in 1620, just as a quick primer. So says you. And they were pilgrims, they were Puritans, separatists as they were often called. They were people who were so pious that no one in all of Europe was pious enough to contend with them. And they were like, I'm sick of all you sinners. We're going to go found a new a new republic in the name and for the glory of God. And we're going to be really, really good. And we're going to do it in the new world. Yep. And that's what they did.

They sailed over to Massachusetts and landed in Plymouth. Yeah. As it turns out, nice place to land, I imagine. And well, I mean, are we going to get to the murderer guy right away? Or should we just ease into that? Well, let's talk about who is there. It wasn't just Puritans. It wasn't just separatists. There was a whole other group of people who don't get talked about a lot. And they were called the strangers. Yeah, that sounded really creepy when I read it for some reason. I think it sounds cool. I think it sounds creepy. Like they look like they should have been dressed in like, like the pilgrim black. Right. Like with a wide brim hat so you can't see their eyes. Yeah. What was the deal with them? Were they Catholic? They were anything but the separatists,

the Puritans. So they were Catholics. They were sailors. They were Africans. They were whoever, kidnapped Indians. I don't know if all those people were on the Mayflower, but there was a bunch of people, you know, who got them over there, who went with them. And the Puritans were pretty rigid. Obviously, they didn't like Catholics at all. They were indeed extremely rigid. But to this degree, as we'll see, they found that like, nobody's this rigid. And there were a lot of strangers who broke a lot of laws, but there were a lot of Puritans who did too. And they just kind of glossed it over. They kept records, but these things just didn't get promoted. Right. Yeah, Mort's relation. Yes. That's what you're talking about. Mort's relation written in 1622 by William

Bradford, who was clearly the governor, longtime governor of Plymouth. Right. His cousin, George Morton, wrote, he was a separatist and he wrote this book or an account. And that was, that sort of looked at as the account of Plymouth. But as it turns out, as you point out, because you wrote this, Mort's relation was written to attract funding for Plymouth. So it was basically like a lengthy in-depth brochure to attract investors. And what are you going to say? You're not going to say we're starving to death over here. Right. We're having a really hard time. We're probably not going to make it. People are committing bestiality. Yes. Buggery is what they call that. Oh, really? Uh-huh. We'll get to that in a minute. Okay. And they're not going to say this. They're

going to say things are great. We're really living by God's will. We're really just making it over here. We need some more money. Yeah. Yeah. That's what they did. So that means take it with a grain of salt. But they didn't just pretend like the strangers weren't there, but they painted some of the strangers in possibly a less than flattering light, right? Yeah. I mean, are we at the Billingtons then? Might as well be. The Billingtons, the family, John Billington, his wife, Eleanor, his sons, little John, John Jr. Right. And Francis, who was a boy, his other son, they were sort of painted as like reading your article. They sort of seem like, on one hand, like the first white trash, you know? That's one way to put it. And then they also sort of seem like, no, you know,

they might have been kind of cool and just rabble-rousers. Yeah. Or yes, I think that that's very accurate. But they definitely weren't any friends of Bradford. He did not like these people. No, he didn't. He called, he wrote in a letter to a Mr. Cushing, I believe. Yes. That who had some sort of authority, I guess, over the colony in, back in England. But he basically says that Billington still rails against you and that he's a nave, which means a scoundrel. And he'll always be a nave. He'll live and die so. Yeah. And as so, he'll live and die. Yeah, that was Cushman, by the way. Thank you. Same thing. And he also said, he quote, he said, they were one of the profanest families to come to the colony. And it wasn't just John. I mean, they didn't, he didn't like any

of them. His kids were a bit of a handful, too. Well, one of them, it doesn't say who in the records, but on the way over, decided that he was going to shoot off his father's musket. Yeah. Right. Gun in a cabin filled with people, which is bad enough. Right. But he did it right next to a open half filled keg of gunpowder. Right. So he almost just blew the whole Mayflower up. Yeah. And history would have changed forever, probably. So that was the first thing that happened with the Billingtons and the rest of the people on the Mayflower. Yes. No, actually, it wasn't. There was a mutiny that John Billington, the father, was involved in. And he was let off the hook because it was his first offense. But that started, tensions were already high,

and then one of his sons, either Francis or John Jr., shot off the gun in the cabin. So you start to get an impression of this family, especially when you look at, you know, when you think of them bristling, not just the average person's, you know, ire, but a Puritan's ire, right? Yeah. Because you can screw up like innumerable ways in the eyes of a Puritan, especially if you're not a Puritan. That's right. And then once they got to the New World, they continued their shenanigans. John Jr. kind of wandered off one day, 20 miles worth, and wandered into a Native American village. And then he was taken to another village by those Native Americans. And eventually, they send out a group to go find them and took them a little

while. They set sail, actually, ended up on Cape Cod, what is now Cape Cod. And said, you know, you're going to have to come back. Yes. And they found him because of Massa Swat, who is the great Stachem of the Wapanoag. Wapanoag. Yeah. Well, Panawag. We're getting an email for that one. Who was involved in the first Thanksgiving with these same people. So he might have had something to do with that, then, huh? Well, he did. He was already like, he basically was trying to use the Englishman against his rivals, I think the Abenaki, to basically run them out rather than consolidate with the other Indians against the English. Gotcha. And basically, that turned over the whole continent to Europe. Like that one act

is largely considered as the deturning point. Well, how about that? So he was already pals with them. Yeah. And yeah. So he helped them find the boy. And if you're from Plymouth, if you live in the Plymouth area, then you might know Billington Sea, which is a pond, and that's named for John Jr. Yeah, who wandered off, right? Yeah. Yeah. I think that he might have found that. I mean, you know, he discovered the pond, but he may have discovered it on his wander. Right. His sojourn. Yeah, if you will. But they found him, and he was quote, be hung with beads. So apparently, they, you know, kind of adopted him a little bit. Like, he was the mascot of the village. And then they gave him back. Yeah. And then the,

I think the colonists gave the Indians a couple of knives and said, thanks. And went back to Plymouth. Thanks for the beads and the guy. But you have to imagine that mounting a 10-man sailing expedition into Indian country because your kid wandered off, it's gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna rub the back of your neck and be like, thanks a lot. You know, yeah. You know, if you are a Billington, like thanks for getting my kid back, you know, can I, do I owe you anything? Or, you know. Not so though, because Billington had a bad reputation in that he scoffed at Captain Miles Standish, and you don't scoff at Standish. Miles Standish, proud. Miles Standish was trying to get people to, to, you know, serve in the military. And Billington was like, no, dude,

I ain't, I'm not doing that. Yeah. He was a part of anti-government groups, government subversion. Well, there was, in 1624, there was what's called the Oldman Lyford conspiracy. That was the name of the two main conspirators. He was named as a co-conspirator and reading his history and then this, you know, the actual history of this conspiracy, which was a lot of secret meetings about how they should overthrow this Puritan regime and start governing this colony the right way. He was probably a part of it, but he denied it and was let off the hook again. Well, and he, he would also apologize for the, for standing up against Standish. And they said, they threatened him with hog tying, which can actually kill you. I didn't realize that.

I could see that because all your, all your weight's on your chest, right? Well, it's, they tie your legs together, they tie your arms behind your back, and then they tie your ankles to your neck, around your neck. What? So unless you stay completely arched like that, you're going to start cutting off circulation, like it's a form of torture. It's not just, oh, we're going to tie you up. Well, that whole second step has been kind of lost to history, as I understand it. Well, now is it just tying the, the hands and legs? Yeah, you tie your, your hands and your, your wrists and your ankles together behind your back. And yeah, you're arched, but I don't know anything about tying the ankles around that. That's horrible.

Apparently the old hog tie was a little more brutal. Yeah. Which makes total sense. Which also makes sense why he's described as basically like pleading for mercy, not to have that happen to him. Which is why they let him go. Yeah, Miles Samish is like, all right, but get out of my sight, Billington. The war hog tie. And I mean, like there's really, there's, there's, we can't forget, we can't leave out the fact that these people were original Plymouth colonists. Like they were the first. He's on the charter, right? The first European, the first English European Americans and the first, what would become one of the first states of America? Yeah. Like these are important people no matter what their reputations are. Yeah. He was the signer of the

Mayflower Compact, which is the first European based governing law, I guess you would call it, set of laws. And he was, he was, he helped hew the colony out of the wilderness. He was one of the colonists, right? Yeah. And there's a PDF online I found that traces his family tree. And apparently James Garfield, the president, was a descendant of Billington. Oh yeah. And I mean, if you're, I wish I would have written down some of the last names. I know Witten was one of them. But I mean, there were people that it said like still alive today. Oh yeah. There was a, apparently, I remember researching this, I couldn't find it when I re-research for this podcast. But there's like a whole group of people who are into that kind of thing who are proudly

ancestors of Billington. This rabble rouser, the first like real troublemaker in America. Well, people are proud period just to be descendants of the Plymouth colonists, for sure. Hey, I'm Lance Bass host of the new I hard podcast frosted tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough, or you're at the end of the road. Okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. This I promise you. Oh God. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh man. And so my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep,

we know that Michael and a different hot sexy teen crush boy band are each week to guide you through life step by step. Oh, not another one. Kids relationships life in general can get messy. You may be thinking this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to frosted tips with Lance Bass on the I heart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Mangeh Shatikler. And to be honest, I don't believe in astrology. But from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life in India. It's like smoking you might not smoke, but you're going to get second hand astrology. And lately, I've been

wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention. Because maybe there is magic in the stars, if you're willing to look for it. So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you, it got weird fast. Tantric curses, major league baseball teams, canceled marriages, K-pop. But just when I thought I had a handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology, my whole world came crashing down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father. And my whole view on astrology, it changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too. Listen to skyline drive and the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

So hopefully everybody has kind of an idea of how Billington and his family were regarded, right? Well, we didn't get to his wife and daughter. I know that was after what he did. His wife was, Eleanor was locked in the stocks and whipped at one point. She was also had to pay fines of five pounds sterling because she was found guilty of slandering her neighbors. And his granddaughter, Dorcas. I love that name. There's only one way to pronounce that, right? Yeah. D-O-R-C-A-S. Dorcas. I'm going to bring that one back. Yeah. If I ever have a daughter, she's going to be Dorcas Bryant. Dorcas apparently was sentenced to whipping because she had sexual intercourse when she was

22 years old and you didn't do that. So, yeah, the whole family was definitely not, they didn't fall in line with the rest of the crowd. Although that's not true because a lot of the rest of the crowd was doing even worse things as it turns out. You just didn't read it in the brochure. Right. So can we talk about some of the stuff that people were doing? Please. Okay. So remember, by 1690, there's still only 755 people in Plymouth colony. 775. Okay. So this stuff's happening like 20, 50 years before that. Way fewer people. And yet there were incidents where people like Thomas Granger, who is a servant, was indicted for buggery, which we established before it was bestiality, with a mare, a cow,

two goats, diverse sheep, two calves, and a turkey. Who he fell in love with. He was sentenced to hang by, or sentenced to die by hanging. John Walker, the next year. A turkey? Yes. He was, he laid with a bitch as it's put, and of course we mean the, well the pilgrims meant the dog, the female dog. Another guy was, he was held on suspicion of buggery with a beast. Another guy had buggery with a mare, and it just keeps going on and going on. So basically somebody would get caught sleeping with a dog, and would be whipped, put into the stocks, pilloried, and it was just recorded, but never talked about. Yeah, there was also rape and sodomy against humans going on.

Yeah, the way they put sodomy was that they were, these John Alexander and Thomas Roberts back in 1637 were caught, and they got the hot irons, which, wow, is, that's rough. So you hear about this stuff, and you think Dorcas doing, you know, sleeping with a man, I presume, is a very normal thing for a 22-year-old middle-aged woman to do at the time. Yes. She's not, she's not laying down with the turkeys. No. So Eleanor got put in the stocks for slander, right? Yeah. But there's no recording of what she said, or basically, we've reached this point here where we should probably talk about what John Billington did. Okay. Because now that we've debunked the fact that not everyone was super pure, and you can't necessarily read Mort's relation and the brochure and say, you

know, everything was just hunky-dory over there. This may be, actually, maybe this is why the movie hasn't been made. Right. Because who wants to see a guy sleeping with a turkey? I don't know. I think you get your hands on those kind of movies. You paid a lot for it, you know what I'm saying? It's a market for that, but it's not box office grossing, record-breaking numbers. Peter Weir wouldn't touch that one. Not with a 10-foot pole. So we should probably talk about how Billington became America's first murderer. It took place, what, 10 years after he got there. So you have to think like this guy's an original settler, and he's been farming and hewing an existence out for himself and other people. And as an original

Mayflower compact signer, he got a bunch of land parceled to him. Like, this is probably Billington's land now. So, well, he made an enemy, clearly one real enemy. He made quite a few, Bradford being one of them, but he made one enemy named John Newcomen, who was a newcomer, as it turns out, to Plymouth. He hadn't been there for 10 years. And it seems like history is a little sketchy, because, like you said, it's not all recorded at that point. But one thing I read was it was possibly overhunting rights, and I don't know how true that is. It is, very true.

Oh, it is? Yeah. When I was going back and reading the source material for this, I'm like, why was I so vague when I wrote this article? Oh, because it did that confirm? Did it confirm that? Yeah. Well, so in the Bradford's version, basically, it's like this, that Billington waylade Newcomen, right? We should explain what waylade is. Waylade is like basically lying in wait and then murdering.

Yeah, like hiding in the bush and jumping out and killing somebody. Premeditated. It premeditated. It's huge. If you read a stranger's account, there's an account by a stranger. I don't know who. It's not in the source I cited. But it talks about how Newcomen was already known to Billington because he used to steal from Billington's traps. He poached on his land. Okay. And Billington had chased the kid off a bunch of times. Newcomen was 17 at the time.

Gotcha. He was a little jerk. Basically. And he was what the strangers called a saint, which meant you were in good with Bradford because you were a Puritan. And compared to a stranger, you had exponentially more rights and you got away with exponentially more stuff. Gotcha. Okay. So here's Billington, who already has a bad reputation. And there's some little 17-year-old punk kid stealing from his traps, who's chased off time and time and time again. And he catches them there. So he goes after them with his gun. And the kid goes and hides behind

a tree. And Billington shoots at the tree. I don't know if he meant to shoot at the kid. Apparently he was a pretty good marksman. But he hit the kid in the shoulder. Right. Not exactly a lethal shot today. Sure. Well, the kid died in like three days of an infection. That's how the America's First Murder took place. And it was apparently with a blunderbuss. Have you ever heard of these guns?

Is that the one with the big muzzle? Like you see Elmer Fudd is a pilgrim hunting with? Yeah, a little bit. I mean, it's not like an elephant gun, but it does flare out at the end. And it's sort of like what would be considered today is sort of like a sawed-off shotgun. So like it was a musket, but it was short and flared. And so I imagine it had a wider spray, even though it wasn't, well, it wouldn't be a spray because they didn't use pellets. But they compared it to a sawed-off shotgun in what I read. Hand on the pump. Exactly. Ah, okay, I see what you're doing.

Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. This, I promise you. Oh, God. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh, man. And so my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep, we know that, Michael. And a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide

you through life step by step. Oh, not another one. Uh-huh. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Oh, just stop now. If so, tell everybody, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye.

Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Mangesh Atikular and to be honest, I don't believe in astrology. But from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life. In India, it's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're going to get secondhand astrology. And lately, I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention because maybe there is magic in the stars if you're willing to look for it.

So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you, it got weird fast. Tantric curses, Major League Baseball teams, canceled marriages, K-pop. But just when I thought I had a handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology, my whole world came crashing down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father. And my whole view on astrology, it changed.

Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive and the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. So that's how the first murder took place. I get the impression Billington, who is also described as beloved by many in another account by a stranger, kind of a satirical take on Plymouth Colony. Yeah, Thomas Morton in the new English Canaan said that he was a beloved dude. He was beloved by many.

Basically, if you were a stranger, you'd probably like Billington. He sounded like kind of a fun guy, to be honest. I know he's the first murderer, but he's a rabble rouser. I tend to associate with those types. Well, Billington thinks that because of the fact that they need people there still, each individual is very important. And that this kid had been, really, it was the kid's fault that he was on his property. Billington had warned him off that he would be spared his life.

Well, no. Governor Bradford himself was the one who ordered him to death. And he didn't like him to begin with. Right. And now he had his chance. Right. So this is what you could call unfair. To a certain extent.

Perhaps. And not only did Bradford sentence his longtime enemy, or somebody he disdained for many years to death, he was also the one who literally wrote the history. In addition to, what is it, Mort's, what? Mort's retort. Not Mort's retort, I was kidding. Mort's relation. Okay.

So in addition to Mort's relation, the other probably largest-sighted first-hand account of Plymouth Plantation is called, of Plymouth Plantation, it's Bradford's own journal. So he literally wrote the history for Plymouth, and of course he's going to paint it in his, he's going to paint himself and his fellows in the best light. And that's what we go on. And Billington in a poor light because he sentenced him to hang. Yeah. So, I think if anything, this was the episode intended to tell you to always take historical

accounts of the Green Assault. Especially the old ones. There's always two sides to every story, and the three stuges actually get better as you age. Stuff you should know. You got anything else? Nope. If you want to learn more about America's first murderer, type America's first murderer America, I'm having trouble saying that these days.

You can type that in the handy, you can type wherever you want, but you're going to get the best result if you type it in the handy search bar at howstuffworks.com, sure. And that, of course, brings up listener mail. Yes, Josh, I'm going to call this nicotine poisoning from Aaron. A couple of years ago, guys, I came home from university to find my Kiwi roommate working away in the kitchen. He decided to bake brownies for the first time, and I hurried upstairs to try some. He's going to support his friend.

Okay. Quickly, I was overwhelmed by sour taste, which was only mildly canceled out by the cherries, which were mixed in with the batter. I was very close to spitting it out when my roommate walked in and said, what do you think? I didn't want to insult him, so I popped the rest of it in my mouth and said, I could use a little more sugar. I left the room, and that's when everything got hazy. What I do remember is my roommate's bursting into my room.

This is crazy. They found me curled up into a ball with my head between my knees rocking slowly. I was covered in sweat and muttering to myself, letting out loud moans, which is apparently what alerted my roommates. When they opened the door, they flooded the room with light, caused intense pain in my head, and for some reason in my stomach, not really thinking, I bolted to the bathroom and induced vomiting, trying to get all the evil out of me. I was exhausted laying on the floor, trying to figure out what was wrong.

Apparently there were two boxes on the table. Did you read this one? No. One containing brownies, and one with shisha tobacco destined for the hookah that they kept in their house bar. In my haste, I accidentally consumed about three ounces of cherry tobacco mix that was destined for the hookah. Not sure exactly how much nicotine my body absorbed in the hour or so, it was in me,

but when I stood up, I promptly passed out, and according to my roommate, started convulsing on the floor. They wanted to take me to the hospital, of course, but I refused. Being the bull-headed midwesterner, I sometimes can be or the college student who doesn't want to pay for that kind of thing. When I did go to the hospital the next morning, explain the situation to the ER tech. They immediately took my vitals and said I was lucky to have survived without any serious complications, that it very well could have been a fatal dose.

All I can say is, if you're ever in the same situation, Aaron on the side of caution, call poison control right away. He's lucky that his roommates, one of them had EMT training, because it could have gone the other way, and Aaron might not be a fan of our podcast today. He ate hookah tobacco, popped it in his mouth, and said it needs a little more sugar. Wow. Aaron, I'm glad you made it. Poor guy.

If you had a, yeah, I'm very glad he's around. Yeah. So, okay, and if you are a member of the Billington Clan by blood somehow, or marriage, whatever, we want to hear from you, send us an email to stuffpodcast at howstuffworks.com. What you should know is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts, my heart radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new I Heart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass.

Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help, and a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

I'm Munga Chauticular, and it turns out astrology is way more widespread than any of us want to believe. You can find it in Major League Baseball, international banks, K-pop groups, even the White House. But just when I thought I had a handle on this subject, something completely unbelievable happened to me, and my whole view on astrology changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, give me a few minutes because I think your ideas are about to change too.

Listen to Skyline Drive on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.